General Atomics plays small part in 'Star Trek' sequel

Star role: The latest Star Trek film has a San Diego connection. Three weeks of filming for “Star Trek into Darkness” took place in the National Ignition Facility of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where real space-age science involves fusing atoms to harness their energy. The laser chamber visible in the movie is part of the facility’s Inertial Confinement Energy program for which San Diego’s General Atomics makes ignition “targets.”

In the movie, the National Ignition Facility is the scene of a lot of the fighting because it generates the power that enables warp speed. Livermore spokeswoman Lynda Seaver said the actors did not actually operate lab equipment (nor did Captain Kirk, played by Chris Pine, kick it in an attempt to restore warp speed power). For that, producers imported in their own mock equipment.